At the very best, state benefits are very low.
There is no right to state benefits.
What you get may depend on the whim of a state official.
If off for a longer time, you will have to take a medical and other work assessment tests.
Sick pay
If you're off for more than a week, your employer may ask for a sick note from your doctor or hospital.
If your employer refuses to pay you the sick pay you're due, this is classed as an 'unlawful deduction from wages'.
Statutory Sick Pay SSP of £75.40 a week won't be enough to keep body and soul together. If your employer doesn't operate a decent sick pay scheme, make sure you have a financial back-up plan.
Only if you're still sick after 28 weeks, can you now apply for Employment Support Allowance.
Welfare reform
A new concept of welfare reform means that while the government is trying to argue that the idea is to get everyone possible working, the real idea behind the reforms is to reduce the overall amount the government pays to the ill, the jobless and the disabled.
From 27 October 2008 Employment and Support Allowance replaces Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on incapacity grounds.
The principle of Employment and Support Allowance is that everyone should have the opportunity to work and that people with an illness or disability should get the support they need to engage in appropriate work, if they are able.
How does this affect the individual?
Employment and Support Allowance offers personalised support and financial help if people are not working due to an illness or disability. It gives people access to a specially trained personal adviser and a wide range of further services.
Every claimant takes a range of new medical assessments that examine what people can do, rather than what they can’t, and identify what personal support they might need.
People claiming Employment and Support Allowance will be expected to take appropriate steps to help prepare for work, including attending a series of work-focused interviews with a personal adviser.
Under Employment and Support Allowance people with an illness or disability that means they are unable to undertake any form of work-related activity will get increased financial support and will not be expected to prepare for a return to work.
The poorest, most disabled people in society will be given financial support from the Government, but all other disabled and long-term ill people who could work will be expected to get employment, of some type. You may be a qualified engineer, but if the only work you can get is as a minimum wage cleaner, you will be expected to take that work or have your benefits stopped.
Welfare reform aims to get a million people back to work. Charities are concerned that even if you are ill, disabled, or struggling to cope with family problems – you will be pushed and pushed to find any work there is, however meagre, and even if it means you get less at work than if you were claiming benefits.
While no one argues about the work-shy getting made to work, on the ground, where decisions are made by over-worked under-paid staff, the division between the lazy and the genuinely ill, is not that easy.
How does it work?
From October 2008, all new and repeat claimants will undergo the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) – a new medical test designed to look at what people can do rather than what they cannot. ESA claimants will then be split into two groups, depending on the outcome of the assessment:
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The “Work-related activity group”: Those claimants who pass the assessment and are identified as capable of taking part in some form of work-related activity will be entitled to claim ESA at a rate of £84.50 a week. They will be required to attend work-focused interviews through the Pathways to Work scheme, to help them overcome their barriers to work and support them into long-term sustainable employment. Those who don’t fulfil these conditions without a good reason could have their ESA partially cut.
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The “Support Group”: Those identified as not able to take part in any work-related activity (the most severely disabled group) will not be expected to take part in work-focused activities unless they want to, but will not face any sanctions. Some in this group will get a guaranteed income of £102.10 a week, while everyone else in this category will receive a mere £89.50 a week.
All people claiming ESA may also continue to be eligible for other benefits, such as Disability Living Allowance and Housing and Council Tax Benefit.
Those who do not qualify for ESA must apply for Jobseeker’s Allowance and will be expected to take part in the work-focused interviews and programmes to help them get back to work.
The main changes to the current system of incapacity benefits announced in the regulations are:
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A move away from an inactive benefit to an active benefit which takes away incentives to stay on benefit for a long period of time. At the moment the amount of money someone gets goes up after six months and then again after one year.
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Removal of the ‘age addition’ which gives more money to people who start their claim before they are 45 – taking away another outdated incentive to stay on incapacity benefit for a long time.
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Medical assessments to be conducted much sooner – within 13 weeks – helping to prevent people from falling into benefit dependency. Those who need it receive support much faster and those who are able to work get the help they need to get back into the workplace.
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A simpler benefit – people will apply for just one benefit instead of the current system where they either claim Incapacity Benefit or Income Support on grounds of incapacity, or even a combination of both.
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